The Part 107 Prep Buyer’s Guide: three short reads

Three two-minute reads. Each one stands alone; each links to the full piece behind it.

1. What a Part 107 training tool should actually do

“Practice test” covers four different things, and the fixes for a weak one have almost nothing in common. A drill teaches a topic with immediate feedback. A simulation rehearses the sitting: 60 scored questions plus 5 unscored validation items, 120 minutes, three choices, no feedback until you submit. A question bank is the raw material both draw on, and its value is whether each answer cites the FAA source it comes from. Readiness is the measurement layer that tells you, per topic and with a sample size, whether you should book.

A tool can be strong in one and weak in another. The mistake is judging all four by the size of the bank.

What should a Part 107 exam simulator actually do? →

2. What to require before you buy, or assign one to a class

Fifteen questions, in eight groups. The shortest test of all: ask to see the source behind one explanation. If the answer is a citation string, ask where the text is. Which blueprint is the practice weighted to, and where did the vendor get it — because the FAA retired the printed one on 29 September 2025 and most material has not caught up. Does every question cite its FAA source. Is the simulation the real format, and how many can a student take before questions repeat. Does the vendor measure their own bank for the shape tells that let a student score without knowing anything. Is readiness reported per topic with the sample size beside it. Are chart questions drawn on figures the student has never seen, because from 26 October 2026 the exam’s will be.

The standard names no vendor and ranks nothing, and we score ourselves against it in full — including the places we come off worst.

And one question the fifteen raise rather than ask: when a student misses a question, what does the tool do with it? If the answer is not a schedule in days, it is a bank with a shuffle button. How study works here →

The Part 107 Training Tool Standard: fifteen questions →

3. How to tell when you are ready

A high score on a practice bank is evidence of one of two things: that you know the material, or that you have learned the bank. The second is common, it feels identical from the inside, and you find out which one you had at the testing centre. The tells are knowable. So is the fix: answer before you read the options, and on everything you get right, say why the other two were wrong.

Readiness is not one number. It is a per-topic score with the sample size beside it, and a stated gate — a floor on every topic plus a number of passed timed sims — that you either clear or do not.

Why your practice scores are not telling you whether you are ready →

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Every regulatory statement in these pieces cites its section. We publish no pass rates or outcome figures, ours or anyone’s, and we name no vendor.